Web resources for China and Inner Asia

Freely available web resources selected by the China and Inner Asia librarian which will support your research into the China and Inner Asia.

Art

Asian Film Connections
List of contemporary films made in China, India, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan from 1998 onwards. Includes synopses, interviews, educational material, and essays from Asia's leading film journals, and contains images and video clips from selected films. Available in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Chinese Movie Database
Covers Chinese movies made in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries/regions, from 1905 to present. Searchable by movie title and peoples names.
Chinese Independent Film Archive (CIFA)
It covers production and circulation of film and issues relating to the role of the state with regards to film in China. The website is building a database of Chinese independent films and a research archive of writing on Chinese independent films, while gathering oral histories from independent filmmakers and critics.
Digital Taiwan 典藏台灣
Taiwan e-learning and digital archives program.
East Asia Image Collection (EAIC)
An open-access archive of digitised photographs, negatives, postcards, rare books and slides. The EAIC documents the history of imperial Japan (1868-1945), its Asian empire (1895-1945) and occupied Japan (1947-52). Images of Taiwan 台湾, Japan 日本, China 中国, Korea 朝鮮, Manchuria 満洲国, and Indonesia are included. The Collection is built around a core of visual materials donated to Skillman Library Special Collections by the family of Gerald and Rella Warner.
Formosa 19th century images
Gathers together a large body of primarily European and American images of the island of Taiwan – called "Formosa" by foreign visitors in the nineteenth century – and its various peoples, natural resources, wildlife, and the built environment. These textual and visual representations, maps, and linguistic data were originally published in European and North American books and journal during the 19th century.
Hong Kong Movie Database
An online database for Chinese movies. Searchable by movie title and peoples names.
National Palace Museum Open Data
Freely available images and research materials of the National Palace Museum.
Reading digital atlas 數位方輿
This digitalisation project collects atlas in Qing dynasty across the collection institutions in the US, the UK and Japan.
Tibet: from the collections of the American Geographical Society Library
This site provides free access to over 1,000 historic images of Tibet from the holdings of the American Geographical Society Library, including rare images taken by American explorers in 1900, and photographs of northern Tibet from the collections of Harrison Forman (1932-1937). The collection also includes historic maps. The collection is searchable, or can be browsed by subject, city or province. Copyright information is provided. The collection forms part of the University of Wisconsin Digital Library.

Archaeology

Innovating digital archives for Archaeological data 考古資料數位典藏創新計劃
This project incorporates digitised collections of archaeological artefacts, field notes, and photos. Developed by Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica.

Chinese studies

Digital Resources in International Chinese Studies 國際漢學研究數位資源
A wealth of digital information of research on Chinese cultural studies and humanities. Developed by the Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) at National Central Library (NCL) in Taiwan.
European Association of Sinological Librarians (EASL)
Scroll down the page and use the table of contents to view the categorised list of resources.
Marjorie Chan's China Links
Annotated links to over six hundred websites pertaining to on-line resources on Chinese studies. Site maintained by Professor Marjorie K.M. Chan, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Ohio State.

Language/Literature

Hong Kong Literature Database
The Database is powered by various searching functions. Full-text is available in a major part of the database.
Himalayan Language project
The Himalayan Languages Project of Leiden University is a programme of ongoing linguistic research on hitherto undescribed and little known languages indigenous to the Himalayan region.
Tibetan-English-Dictionary of Buddhist Teaching & Practice
The Dharma Dictionary is an ongoing project involved in compiling Buddhist terminology and translation terms to bridge the Tibetan and English languages. It has slowly grown to a database of approx. 5 megabytes with 65,000 entries.
The Tibetan Dialects Project
The Tibetan Dialects Projects is run by a group of researchers at the Institute of Linguistics, University of Berne.
The Flora of China
A collaborative project to publish the first modern English-language account of the approximately 30,000 species of vascular plants of China (one-eighth of the world's flora).
The Taiwan Literature Archives 臺灣文學大典
Features a wide spectrum of Taiwanese authors.
Zhongwen.com: Chinese characters and culture
Provides etymologies of Chinese characters in order to help students understand, appreciate and remember characters. Over 4000 characters with etymologies in English and genealogical charts highlighting the etymological connections between characters. Also has good links to Chinese language resources.

Law

Chinese Legal Research Resources
Part of Foreign Law: Legal Research Resources on the Internet, resources compiled by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, The Foreign and International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law D'Angelo Law Library, University of Chicago Law School.
Human Rights in China
An international non-governmental organisation founded by Chinese scientists and scholars in March 1989. Their mission is to promote universally recognised human rights and advance the institutional protection of these rights in China.
Law & regulation databases of the Republic of China (Taiwan) 全國法規資料庫
The law & regulation in Taiwan can be found here. Operated by the working group of the ROC (Taiwan) laws & regulations database, Ministry of Justice.
National Central Library Gazette Online (NCLGO) 政府公報資訊網
Contains over 80 gazettes of Taiwan central and local governments, including proclamations, regulations & laws, orders, notices, treaties, etc.
TCCRA Taiwan Colonial Court records archives 日治法院檔案資料庫
Covers law documents in four local courts (Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung and Chaiyi) during the Japanese colonial period (from 1895 to 1945) in Taiwan. (Free registered)
Update to Beyond the Border: The Chinese Legal Information System in Cyberspace
Basics of the laws of the People's Republic of China, the laws of the Hong Kong SAR, and the laws of the Macao SAR, major online Chinese Legal Resources in English and Chinese.

Politics

Annual Report on the Military Power of the People's Republic of China
This report by the United States Department of Defense addresses (1) China's grand strategy, security strategy, and military strategy; (2) developments in China's military doctrine and force structure, to include developments in advanced technologies which would enhance China's military capabilities; and, (3) the security situation in the Taiwan Strait.
The Security Situation the Taiwan Strait
Report by the United States Department of Defense which addresses Taiwan's ability to defend against current and emerging PLA capabilities.
Chinese Military Power
Set of resources relating to China's military situation. Published by The Project on Defence Alternatives, the Commonwealth Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Religion

Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA) 中華電子佛典協會
Provides free Chinese Buddhist Sutras for non-profit use.
Digital Buddhist Library and Museum: Comprehensive Cyberspace for Buddhist Studies
A comprehensive source of online Buddhist resources from the Center for Buddhist Studies, National Taiwan University (NTU).

Taiwan Studies

Digital Archives Search System, National Taiwan Library 數位典藏查詢系統, 國立臺灣圖書館
This serach system covers fourteen collection databases with regards to Taiwan studies.